Horta and on to San Jorge

NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Wed 27 May 2009 10:26
Horta
38:40.8N
28:12.1W
Vila das Velas
Sao Jorge
26th May 2009
Our stay on the Island of Faial in the marina
at Horta, its capital, was most enjoyable. This is the crossroads of the
world when it comes to yachts and well over a thousand visit each year. By
definition all are on long passages and the vessels and the people that crew
them are often very interesting. Cafe de Sport is the meeting place and
many accents and languages can be heard here every night. Old hands say it
is not as good as when 'the father' ran it as opposed to 'the son' who
has taken over now but for those of us who were first time visitors it was
still an enjoyable watering hole. Apart from exploring the numerous
back streets of Horta itself and walking the surrounding hills we also hired a
car for a day and circled the island. We both came away with the
impression that Azoreans have a lot of civic pride, that there was little if any
signs of poverty and that this is a climate where everything grows extremely
well. One was also aware that these are and remain a very volcanic set of
islands. I will tell the story in pictures.
![]() The waters around these islands are full of the dreaded
Portuguese man of war jelly fish
![]() This picture was taken from a picnic spot above the
town. The commercial breakwater
can be seen on the left and the inner one protecting the
marina in the centre. This is one of the very few
all weather ports for yachts in this archipelago.
![]() In two separate explosions the island increased in size in
1957/8 The land in this photo
was not there until then and is now the western end of
Faial. Apparently over half of
the new land has since eroded back into sea so the extent of
the eruption can be judged.
The whole history of these islands, both social and
economic, has been dominated by such eruptions.
Large migrations to the USA in particular having taken place
over the last 150 years.
![]() This is a photo of the Caldeira that marks the summit and
centre of Faial. The walk round the top
is 8 km which gives an idea of its size. There are no
public paths down into the centre and descent is banned.
We did not do the walk round the top as the usual thick cloud
was covering the path for most of the time.
![]() Playing games with the delay timer on my camera. This is
taken at the picnic spot above Horta
where we went with our German friends off Noa to watch the
sunset and enjoy some nibbles and a bottle or two of wine.
We have been together with Noa and her crew, on and off, since
Madagascar and much enjoy their company.
![]() We have been amazed at how cold it is, here at 38 degrees
north. To show that we are
not becoming tropical softies I show the view which met us a
couple of mornings ago.
The summit of Pico covered in snow in late May.
![]() The wall of the marina and just about every flat surface in
the harbour is covered in
the daubing of those yachts who have passed through. We
saw the efforts of many friends.
On rather a rough bit of concrete we added our own. The
last time we had done this
was on the atoll of Cocos Keeling in the Indian Ocean. I
wonder which one will last longest.
We will never find out.
![]() Finally a picture of the old town of Horta. Nearly all
the streets are cobbled so the
cars make a lot of the sort of noise I associate with Maigret
films in Paris. All the pavements
are decorated and much effort and time is still being expended
on this as new road/pavement works
still are the same.
All good things have to come to an end and with some effort
and the goodwill of our neighbours we extracted ourselves from the raft up
against the
marina wall and motored off in a calm to the island of Sao
Jorge.
Happy times
David __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4108 (20090527) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4108 (20090527) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4108 (20090527) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com |